Brent Cross bans smoking

London's oldest shopping centre has introduced a complete ban on smoking after 26 years following complaints from customers.

The decision by Brent Cross Shopping Centre - which came into effect on New Year's Day - brings the shopping centre into line with more modern retail outlets such as Bluewater in Kent, which has operated a no smoking policy since it opened.

Brent Cross was the first shopping centre of its kind to open in the United Kingdom in the 1970s, modelled on a concept imported from the United States. For more than two decades smokers have been able to have a cigarette while they shop in one of 100 retail units which see 350,000 customers in an average week.

"We have increasingly found that people are smoking less and less. The majority of our customer feedback forms complained that there was smoking at the centre," said Tom Nathan, commercial director. "On New Year's Day we thought we would have a lot of problems. But those we asked to stop smoking stopped quite willingly. We had just one person who said he was being victimised."

The ban means the concourses, as well as the shops, are off-limits to smokers. The only places in the centre where people can still puff on a sneaky fag are designated parts of the restaurant area. The no smoking drive is backed by stickers, posters and announcements on the PA system. Security guards and cleaners are equipped with prominent no smoking badges.

Not everyone, however, was delighted about the transformation. Antonia Mealing, 25, a trainee solicitor, was smoking as she sat outside Marks & Spencer. Asked what she thought of the ban she said: "It's an infringement of civil liberties. I am taking no notice of it. So long as you're not in a shop or restaurant I don't see why you can't sit down and have a smoke. I need it to relax me after the shock of seeing some of the prices. I haven't seen any signs telling me to give up anyway."

Other shoppers were delighted. "I felt it was really claustrophobic when they allowed smoking," said Lucy Allen, who was out with husband Mark. "There was just no fresh air coming in. I didn't come here much for that reason. It will encourage me to come here much more now."

Smoker Danielle Charing, 17, could see the sense of the ban. "If I had a young child with me then I definitely wouldn't smoke in front of them," she said. "And I wouldn't take them to a shopping centre where they had to breathe in other people's smoke."

One smoker who fell foul of the new regulations was Darren Goodman, 21. He was rapidly asked to extinguish his cigarette by a security officer. "I wasn't aware you couldn't smoke in the centre," he said. "But as a smoker I think it's a bad idea."